Wearable anemometer for 2D wind detection

This paper presents a small wearable anemometer for detecting two dimensional wind vector by using a micro thermal flow sensor incorporated with a wireless mobile device. The flow sensor consists of three roundabout Pt hot-wires uniformly distributed in a circle fabricated on a flexible polyimide substrate using micromachining technique. The anemometer integrates the thermal flow sensor, a miniaturized conditioning circuit with a low power Bluetooth module packaged in a watch-like case, and a personal mobile device that wirelessly acquires sensor data and extracts wind velocity and direction by using an improved algorithm. The anemometer takes merits of small size, light weight, and low power consumption, aiming at versatile applications on personal electronics, distributed measurements for meteorology and agriculture.